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I found this great program while researching mosaics for my ancient Greek and Roman art lesson. Mosaics have been around since the ancient Greek and Roman empires and continue to be utilized and loved by all in the modern age. Now, you can put a 21st century twist on the mosaic! Andrea Mosaic allows you to make a mosaic using digital photos instead of the tradition of using colored tiles or stones. Check out my digital mosaic!

I recently read Katrina Schwartz’s Mind/Shift post, “Schools and Students Clash Over Use of Technology”, which outlined the results from a survey of over 400,000 students, parents and educators regarding their views on technology use in the classroom. The report showed a contrasting view of what technology is appropriate in the classroom, with students wanting the ability to access social media sites and use smartphones in class, and 52% of administrators stating that they will not allow these uses of technology in their schools. Ms. Schwartz suggests that administrators should make the connection that allowing students to use this technology will enhance their learning. Although, I agree with the benefits of integrating technology into the classroom experience, I don’t agree that all technology is suited for the classroom. Even though this survey cited that 46% of students have used Facebook to collaborate on a project, we need to remember the obvious: that is not what Facebook is for! I don’t believe that a social media website is the best tool for project collaboration and think that using Google Drive would be a much better alternative. In regards to allowing personal mobile devices, I am torn. If it’s a tablet, I think it would be much easier to manage, however a room of students with smartphones just screams distraction! I see them sending texts and checking facebook throughout the lesson. If there is a full proof way to manage their use and make sure they are not using it for personal reasons, then I am in. I believe these devices can be a huge motivator and a way to teach 21st century learning skills; I just worry about the execution.

Dan Meyer’s talk at TEDxNYED was incredibly insightful about the world of teaching math. Mr. Meyer expressed his discontent with the way math is taught in the U.S. and offered an alternative approach to successfully teaching math. I agree with Mr. Meyer’s assessment that texts books are not fostering the reasoning skills and are simply providing all the facts in which to plug into a formula. The current method of teaching simply calls for memorization and not fully grasping how math concepts work in real life. I agree that if the students go through a real life math problem, using their intuition, and reasoning skills, they will more likely be able to grasp the concept, and move to the Comprehension level, instead of just staying at the Knowledge level. He also was very effective at presenting this new technique to his audience. I enjoyed his humor and the real life examples he gave helped solidify his strategies.

Mr. Meyer made the point that students do not expect to have to formulate the problem, but expect all the of facts to be given to them within the problem. This made me think of how our society and culture have become accustomed to instant gratification and less and less patient to solve problems, find answers, etc. I believe this trending impatience is partly the blame of technology, which has made instant gratification a reality through the Internet, Google, texting, etc.

His idea that we should encourage patient problem solving is innovative and I am sold on using this technique as a future teacher! I will be following Dan Meyer’s Blog starting today!

The PBS Newshour Education offered a thought-provoking podcast on the imminent interest rate hikes on federal student loans. July 1st marked the deadline for federal Stafford loans’ interest rate to double from 3.4% to 6.8%. Congress did not come up with a long term solution by July 1st and will vote to extend the 3.4% rate for another year. However, this podcast explored the deeper issue here-the rising costs of higher education. Two leaders from nonprofit groups that advocate for the Millennial and the author of “Generation Debt” were interviewed on their views of the rate increase and the government’s role in subsidizing higher education.

They all agreed that the real issue at hand is not the higher interest rate, but college affordability. One believed that the government was perpetuating the increase in college costs because it was reaping huge profits from these student loans. Another believed that the colleges were not investing in the right areas, i.e. investing in football fields rather than giving out more grants. The author provided an interesting suggestion that the government should be looking into using technology (online courses) to reduce the costs of college.

I thought this was an intriguing interview with some great opinions and suggestions. I would definitely use a podcast as a professional development tool in the future. The podcast brought to light some issues that I was not familiar with and therefore was an easy way to educate myself. EdReach offers an easy and convenient way to get your educational news in a one-stop shop!

After viewing a short clip on the flipped classroom model, I read two blogs to find out more about this new teaching structure. The Flipped Classroom: An Infographic Explanation provided an informative display with multiple images and graphics for us visual learners. I thought this blog offered a precise and clear explanation of the flipped classroom, with some revealing statistics as well. I was incredibly surprised to see the drastic decrease in failures and discipline cases since moving to the flipped classroom. If those are indicative of what every school would encounter, than I would say that flipping is a no-brainer!

The next blog I read, To Flip or Not To Flip?, discussed an AP Calculus teacher’s decision to give the flipped classroom a try. As someone that has not seen the flipped classroom in action, it was informative to read why this teacher decided to try it, how she planned and prepared, and how it worked in her classroom.

Lastly, at first glance, the flipped classroom reminded me somewhat of how many college courses are structured. Many require the students to do their reading on a particular subject prior to the class in which it will be taught. This structure enables the students to come to class ready to discuss and engage with the teacher on a new concept.